Method and apparatus for chemical treatment



July 25, 1950 BURLlNG ETAL 2,516,447

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CHEMICAL TREATMENT Filed Feb. 24, 1947 5 Sheets-Sheet l E. R. Bur-ling Fi I J.P- Rich July 25, 1950 E. R. BURLING ET AL 2,516,447

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CHEMICAL TREATMENT Filed Feb. 24, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fly. 5 56 Fig. (5'

E. R.Burlin g J.P. Rich y 1950 E. R. BURLING ET AL 2,516,447

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CHEMICAL TREATMENT Filed Feb. 24, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Fig. 9

Fig.1]

E. R.B urlin9 JJlRich Patented July 25, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT .JLOFF-ICE METHOD. AND APPARATUS FOE TREATMENT 'Elmer R. Burling and John P.-=Itich,' Nashua, NLH.

Application February 24, 1947, S.erial.No.-7 30;474

' reclaims.

..-It .is .an object of --.this invention .to i provide a .method .and apparatus vfor the chemical treat- .ment of suspended solids in whichthe. uniformity treatment -.tower -;equipped with the improved equalizer, arms,

.-:Eig.. 2 is a plan View of the towergshownuin 'j- Fig..-3-.-is-z-a sectionon .the line. 3.3 of i,

.Fig. A is. any enlarged planview 10f ,one .of.-.the equalizer .arms, v

.-Fig.--.5 is an .elevational viewcorresponding-to .Figs. 6, -'7 and .8 arerespectively sections. taken QFigrQ is arplanviewbfa modified form-ofiarm,

:Eig. 10,.is .alsection. on the.line.;l0-lll-.of Fig. -;9,

Fig. l-1;is-:an enlarged elevation of.-a structure by which charm is zkeyed to theshaft and v Fig. 12 is asection onthe line-l2- -l2 of.-F-ig. .11.

This invention is -;applicablewherever, aiinass .of; divided solids is .--to ;.-be. subjecte;:1 tolthe action =.of, a. chemical in solution tor. to any. chemicals or solvents in liquidform. The-present. discussion ,is

directed; to bleaching or like treatment of .wood

.pulp .but :the ..invention is not .to, be understood as limited. to this only. I t v Atypical treatment is .to, snspendA %,.l )y, weight of .pulp in ;a .solution. of say .10 sodium hypoachlorite. .Sincethegliquid phasei-s a-truesolu- .tion,-the re .is perfect distribution .of .the hypochloriteiinthemater. andsince there are 2 ltons of solution for each ton of pulp, perfect distribu- :tion of ;pu ;lp. throu ghout the liquid.v may reason- .-:-ably be assumed. .The treatment, therefore. will she-uniform if allgportions of the; pulp are exposed .to thesolution for the same length. of time. Batch operations, when .periods :of as muchas three :,ho.urs ,of exposure are required landmhere .many tons .of ,pulp are involved-requireinordinately large and costly installations. Moreover, batch .operations lack uniformity because of differences in the time required for filling-anddumpingstorrageqtanks :or vats. .For :these, reasons. it has be- ..comepcustomary tense treating-towers withthe ;:pulp in SUSDBHSiOIIbBiIlg continuously. suppliedfat .thebottom. and continuously removed-at. the top.

1'2 The vsize ofthe towel-is computed relative-to the rate of supply of the slurry so that theoretically from two to three hours'is required for agiven fiber to move fromthe entrance to theexit of the tower. A typical tower has an altitude of It .is customary to ,run .a shaft through the center ,of such towers and to mount straight horizontaliarms ,on the shaft. These are supposed to agitate the slurry and, therefore, to secure uniformity of treatment. Actual tests have shown,

however; that in such towers equipped with such a tators :a substantial proportion of the v pulp travels jfrom .entrance to exit in :from 15 ,to 30 minutesinstead ofp a theoretical three hours and that merely toincrease the amount of agitation, asby speeding up the rotation, does not materially alter this condition but does entail excessive power consumption. .It is'believe'd that the prior art has misconceived the function of the agitators. What .is required is not mixing or agitating but anequalization of the rate of progress of the slurry through the tower, such equalization .to take place across allfhorizontal .cross sections.

'If no central shaft were provided and; there were no agitation of anysort; it is clear that stock would rise more ..rapidly att e center of the tower than along the ,periphery so that stock emergingat the top. of the tower would represent a mixtureof a large proportion of insufficiently treatedpulp coming up through the center, a small prqportion of properly treated stock and a substantial proportion of overtreatedstock. Precisely.whattheproportions would be is necessarily a matter of pure conjecture since there is'simplyhno means. available for accurate observation of the velocity pattern across the tower. The

presence of the central shaft apparently tends to accentuate the problem, since there appearsto .be a distinct tendency for accelerated passageof stock valong the shaft. 'Theproblem of securing uniformity involves either .acceleration of the travel of pulp adjacent theperiphery or retarding the progress of pulp at the center or both. "The present invention attacksboth aspects of the problem'hy using, instead of conventional agi- .tatoriarma? positive radial, impeller blades which continuously and positively move stock radially outwardly. The. stock so moved necessarily continuously ,returnsradially inwardly. The result .is .a. constant. radial interchangeof stock between the center and the. periphery, the net effect. being .equalizationas betweencenter and,periphery, of

' the time requiredior the laveragefiber to travel theentire length. of the tower,

avoid this swirling effect. One of the greatest difiiculties in perfecting aci Observation of the eifect of these impeller blades during the filling of a tower indicates that the blade continues to exert an effect on the stock tion or radial impelling effect of the blade would,

therefore, be nullified. Accordingly, such blades should be spaced axially of the tower a sufiicient distance so that the swirling efiect of a lower blade is suppressed before the stool; encounters the next upper blade. The factors governing the spacing of the blades are the dimensionsand profiling of the blade itself, its R. P. M. and thecon: sistency of the stock. Qlearly this spacing would be difierent for each combination of blade profile,

consistency and RP. For any'particular tower, thereforait is necessary'to select a spacing which will not produce a complete swirling of all the'stock in the tower under any conditions 'which the toweris intended to encounter. In a tower 60 feet high and 16 feet in diameter intended for the treatment of wood pulp at consistencies" between 3% and a spacing'of approximatelyfi feet seems to be satisfactory'to the operation of large treating towers lies in the lack of meansfor making more than the most limited direct measurements and observations. There are many variables which singlyand in combination affect performance. design 'o'farm and a given rotative speed there will always be a critical consistency below which For a given the. slurry throughout the entire body of the tower will tend to revolve at the same speed as .the arm; and if this takes place'the effect of the 'a'rms'as equalizers of flow 'is destroyed? Similarly-for'anygiveh arm and consistency there is a rotation speed at'which the same phenomenon will take place. Slurries of 3 and 4% consistency j are'extremely opaque so the bnly'dir'ect' observation which can be'made is during the filling of I a tower. This is slightly informative concerningthe behavior of the stock adjacent eacharm,

but, of course, tells nothing about the behavior of the stock adjacent the deeply submergedarms.

' The most effective" test in the operation of a bleaching tower is to 'cut off the'supplybf hypo- 'chlorite for an interval and note the time elapsing between the cutting off of hypochlorit'e and the appearance of; brown stock at the" to'pjof the tower. This is a good indication of the minimum time of transit of stock through the tower, but

there is no very accurate means for determining the percentage of stock which moves "at such minimum time because whatever percentage might be revealed by analysis atany particular time has no necessary correspondence with the percentage actually emerging under t'reated' in the course of many days of continu'ousoperati'on. Actual test data on a hypochlorite towerlB 'feet in diameter and 60 feet high, having a theoretical transit time of 300 minutes showed a minimum treatment time of 30 minutes, using conventional agitation. This is of theoretical. results on the present invention" were hampered by many apparatus limitations of the mill in which the tests were conducted. The minimum "time, however, was brought from 10% of theoretical to from i0 to"80% of'theoretical with the Test I 4 relatively wide range apparently depending on the R. P. M. of the shaft, and to a very large degree on consistency. One extremely tangible result was found in that brightness for the same net chlorine consumption increased from 58 to 68.

Fig. 1 shows in partial section a conventional treatment tower l0 comprising an outer shell l2 and an inner shell l4. Shell I4 has a rounded bottom l6 and at the top has a frusto-conical portion l8 and a cylindrical portion 28. Stock is supplied through a pipe 22 and enters the tower through an annular passageway 24. At the top of the tower stock overflows into an annular trough 26 andis removed through a discharge itself form no part of the present invention.

A shaft 30 extends axially of the tower I0 and "is driven by a suitable motor and reduction gear unit 32. An agitator arm 34 is mounted at the lower end of the shaft 60 close to the bottom [6- ofthe tower l0, while a scraper arm 36 is mounted adjacent the upper end of the shaft 36 and operates to clear rising stock out of the tower and into the trough 26.

Intermediate the bottom arm 34 and the top arm 36 are mounted a series of mutually identical impeller blades 38. As shown in Fig. 3 each blade 38 extends from the side of the shaft 0pposite to the direction of the next adjacent blade.

Details of construction of each impeller blade 38 appear in Figs. 4 through 8. The leading face 48 of each blade 38 is made up of a channel having a vertical wall '42, an upper, horizontal wall 44 and a lower wall 46. The lower wall 46 diverges away from the upper wall 44 from the center of rotation toward the free end of the amend the depth of the upper and lower walls increases from the center toward the extremity of the arm. The vertical wall 42 fOllOWs an involute curve of increasing angularity from the center toward the extremity, that is, a tangent to the wall 42 near the center makes a smaller angle with a radius drawn through thepoint of tangency than is the case with a tangent and radius near the extremity. Purely the angle is 45 degrees and in the free end section the angle is degrees.

These precise angles are not, however, critical. The essential feature of the curvature of the vertical wall 52 is that the radial thrust of the impeller arm as it rotates should increase and the circumferential thrust should decrease from the center toward the free end.

' The channeldefined by the vertical wall 42 and the upper wall 4-4 and the lower wall 46 is the active or effective portion of the arm. In order however, to increase the structural strength of the arm the walls '44 and 46 extend rearwardly beyond the vertical wall 42 and are connected by a rearward vertical wall 50 which between the lines 6-6 and 8-8 in Fig. 4 defines a rectangular boxlike cross section and makes the arm' extremely rigid.-

Adjacent thecenter the upper wall 44 projects beyond the rearward vertical wall 50 and also projectsbeyond the lower wall 46 to define a pair of flanges 52 and 54. These are cut away as ber 56 within the cut.-out-.-,portion*zbetween *the shoulders 52' and 54 and has s-a -central curved part 58 which conforms 430 the exterior :oftheshaft 30. A pair oftapered keys 59,59

frespectivelyzare welded to theshouldersclid'eand "52'and are also welded to thexhub member56. Both these-ikeys taper downwardly (see.key r59 in Fig. 11), key 59 having its right side at inclined to the vertical, while key 59' has its left .side 'y inclin'e'd :to vertical. This.lconstruction ::has :the a-advantage \that the :driving t'orque \is always applied perpendicularly"toatherkeylfaces involved. The side a: is referred to hereinafter as the leading side or wall and the opposite side of the channel as the trailing side or wall. The terms leading and trailing have reference to the direction of rotation of the shaft. It is clear that driving thrust must be imparted by the shaft to the arm by contact beween' the trailing, vertical surfaces.

At each point on the shaft 30 where an impeller arm 38 is to be secured there are welded to the shaft 30 a pair of key receiving members 60 each having a tapered keyway 62 to receive the keys 59 and 59. It is accordingly an extremely simple operation to mount the arms 38 on the shaft 30 by dropping the keys 59 and 59' into the appropriate keyways 62. The assembly is completed by bolting to the flanges 52 and 54 a semi-circular plate 64. This plate tends to prevent the establishment of a flow of stock vertically upward along the shaft 30.

For the sake of simplicity of illustration the parts are shown in the drawings, as though they were simple metal surfaces. In practice, however, all exposed surfaces of the arms 38, including the surfaces of the hub 56, the keys X and Y, as well as all exposed surfaces of the shaft 36, the key receivin member 60 and the keyway 62 are covered with a substantial thickness of rubber or equivalent chemical-resistant material. The precise thickness is not critical but should be at least an eighth of an inch and preferably three sixteenths of an inch. Naturally the plate 64 is similarly rubber covered.

Figs. 9 and illustrate a special form of arm which is particularly useful for operating at relatively high R. P. M. in relatively heavy consistency stock. It will be appreciated that with the presence of as little as 4% pulp a suspension multiplies by many times the effect of fluid friction. These arms have an effective radius at the extremity of as much as 7 /2 feet; this means that even at 8 revolutions per minute the tip velocity is 6 feet per second. Such a velocity is capable of generating severe fluid friction in suspensions having more than 3% suspended solids. To meet this problem an arm 38 is given anticavitation profiling 5| to the rear of the rearward wall 50. As a practical matter such profiling has its greatest importance in approximately that half of the arm 38' extending inwardly from the free end. It does, however, have an important effect in reducing power requirements for the entire tower and in consequent reductions in cost of the motor, the speed reducer and the associated parts of the final installation.

It is clear from the foregoing that the impeller or equalizer arms continuously carry out a pre-determined radial transfer of stock as distinct from mere vertical displacement such as is accomplished by conventional agitator arms and that the effect :scfcsuch :rafdial :transferol's ito e'qu-alize lth'e' progressto'fi the Istockr-as abet-ween the -center and P tl-r' periphery. of: the treatm'ent tower. To be effective the dimensionssofathe arms, their spacing, and the 'speed -J'of rotation, "must be related :to theiaconsistency uof othe stock andiits average :rate :of travel :upwar'd Ethrough the tower so as to assurethat eachiarmliactston every portion of-advancing stock and that the arms do-not bring about a swirling of all the stock at substantially the speed of the arms.

While certain specific embodiments have here beendisclosed, it is not intended to limit this lnventionto the details of thisdisclosure but only as set forth in the subjoinedcla'ims which are to be broadly construed.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of treating pulp comprising: continuously advancing a pulp slurry vertically upward along a cylindrical path; subjecting all pulp arriving at a predetermined level to a slow, positive, continuous, smooth, radially outward displacement by causing said pulp to flow along a substantially cycloidal path and reflecting from the boundary of said cylindrical path the pulp thus radially outward displaced in a radially inward direction to drive before it other pulp immediately above and below said level, said inward and outward displacements being continuous and uninterrupted whereby to minimize agitation between mutually adjacent fibers.

2. A vertical, cylindrical material treatment tower having a rotatable shaft extending axially therethrough; at least one impeller arm secured to said shaft, said arm having its leading face in the form of an open channel unobstructed from the shaft through the free end the crosssectional area of said channel increasing from adjacent the shaft to the free end of the arm.

3. The device of claim 2 in which the crosssection of said channel is substantially rectangular at all points.

4. The device of claim 3 in which said channel is swept back relative to the direction of rotation of the arm to provide a radial component of motion decreasing from the shaft to the free end.

5. A rotary impeller blade for use in material treatment towers, said blade being swept back rearwardly relative to its intended direction of rotation and having its intended leading face in the form of an open channel unobstructed from end to end, said blade having means at one end to mate with securing means on a shaft, said channel increasing in cross-sectional area from the shaft end to the free end.

6. An arm as set forth in claim 5 in which the channel is substantially rectangular in crosssection.

7. An arm as set forth in claim 5 in which the arm, from the shaft end to substantially its free end, has a hollow, box-like cross-section in back of said channel.

8. An arm as set forth in claim 6 in which the arm, from the shaft end to substantially its free end, has a hollow, box-like cross-section in back of said channel.

9. A device for securing an arm to a vertical shaft for rotation therewith in a predetermined direction comprising means defining a channel of rectangular cross-section extendin generally parallel to the shaft axis, the inner trailing wall of said channel being vertical and the opposite leading wall being inclined to the vertical and a key secured to said arm, said key being tapered to fit said channel whereby all rotativc driving force from said shaft to sald-armlstransmltted through contact between the vertical-trailing wall of said channel and. the adjacent. wall of said key.

10. A device according to claim 9 including a pair of channel-forming means secured-1:00pposite sides of the shaft and a pair of keys on the arm, each key fitting a channel. EIMER R. BURLING. JOHN P. RICH. 7

REFERENCES CITED file of this patent:

8 r UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Dab 438,606- Currier Oct. 21, 1890 700,033 Glatz May 13, 1902 7 911,567 Berkowitz Feb. 9, 1909 1,383,881 Thomas July 5, 1921 1,445,935 Daman et a1. Feb. 20, 1923 1,446,639 Cleve Feb. 27, 1923 2,431,478 Hill Nov. 25, 1947 OTHER REFERENCES 

1. A METHOD OF TREATING PULP COMPRISING: CONTINOUSLY ADVANCING A PULP SLURRY VERTICALLY UPWARD ALONG A CYLINDRICAL PATH; SUBJECTING ALL PULP ARRIVING AT A PREDETERMINED LEVEL TO A SLOW, POSITIVE, CONTINOUS, SMOOTH, RADIALLY OUTWARD DISPLACEMENT BY CAUSING SAID PULP TO FLOW ALONG A SUBSTANTIALLY CYCLOIDAL PATH AND REFLECTING FROM THE BOUNDARY OF SAID CYLINDRICAL PATH THE PULP 